The image of teenagers throughout the years has undergone many changes but now according to some in the media we’re all being transformed into an army of Vicky Pollards from Little Britain.
So why are teenagers being given such a raw deal? Children’s Express reporters Nina Osei-Armah and Rebecca Bridges surveyed 50 adults and 50 teenagers to find out the truth behind the headlines…
Society seems happy to portray teenagers as pregnant, dope smoking, happy slapping, jobless yobs. Whether it’s through a Coronation Street teenage pregnancy storyline, the news headlines or what we hear from our parents, they all seem to want to portray teenagers as being a big problem.
Our Investigation
To find out exactly how the world sees young people and how much impact the media has on these beliefs we did an anonymous survey of 100 young people and adults from across London. We gave out questionnaires in schools and shops. And we came up with some interesting results.
We found that 47% of adults believe that teenagers are portrayed in the media as drug abusers, alcoholics or as participating in anti-social behaviour, while only 7% of the people surveyed believed that they are portrayed in a positive way. So is it any wonder that teenagers feel they are being unfairly judged?
Are Adults Superior?
One of the teenagers questioned said: “Adults think they are superior to youngsters”. And we think many teenagers feel this way as their opinions don’t seem to count in the way that adult’s do. Another teenager we asked thought that being labelled as someone who is “a problem” by adults actually encourages young people to live up to this stereotype. If adults and the media think the worst of teenagers, why shouldn’t we prove to them how bad we can be?
On the other hand not all teenagers believed it is just adults and the media giving them a bad name, as one young person wrote: “It is the teenagers that do the labelling.” Although we know that some teenagers are happy to label each other in negative ways, our survey found that 40% of teenagers felt it is the media that has the biggest impact on the way they are portrayed, with friends and peers coming in at only 18%.
Stereotypes
This shows what a big impact the stereotypical portrayal of characters like Vicky Pollard must have on adults and how they see young people. We asked people about stereotypes in our survey and both adults and teenagers agreed that we all use and have labels attached to us. “People are naturally prone to stereotype others, it’s in our nature” was the opinion of one adult.
Does this mean then that today’s teenagers should just ignore the latest wave of media panic? Another person we surveyed said: “Each generation has a different panic”. If that is true it seems that for this generation, teenagers are the new panic.
Jealous Adults
But how do young people feel about this new panic and their negative stereotypes? According to our survey teenagers don’t seem that bothered; only 58% of them cared whether or not they were described as a comical character like ‘Vicky Pollard’. But one man we surveyed thought these negative stereotypes were only a bad thing: “We must encourage and celebrate the successes of young people. Society finds it hard to congratulate a younger generation who are more successful than they were”.
Could this be true? The media certainly fails to point out our good A’ Level and GCSE achievements that prove we are a better and brighter generation. Instead they tell us how much easier exams are becoming. Can it be that adults are jealous of the success of teenagers today?
About the team
This story was produced by Becky Bridges, 16 and Nina Osei-Armah, 16. It was published by Reach for the Sky website.
